mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for yielding me the time . 
i thank the gentleman for his great leadership on this bill , h.r. 1461 . 
this has clearly been a long , long time in the making . 
it has taken unbelievable negotiation , incredible legislation , incredible patience from our chairman . 
i want to congratulate the gentleman from louisiana ( mr. baker ) xz4000120 , as well , for his steadfast work , his incredible leadership in bringing this bill to the floor , something , frankly , that has been in the making for well over a decade . 
i think it would be good , mr. chairman , to remind people why we are here in the first place . 
for a lot of americans they do not quite understand what the gses are , fannie and freddie . 
admittedly they play a very critical role in our housing market , in helping produce what we now enjoy , the highest rate of homeownership in the history of america . 
but at the same time , we have given them a very special charter . 
we have given them unique government-granted benefits that we do not grant their competitors , and we give them these benefits so that they can create liquidity in the secondary mortgage market and help create the american dream for so many people . 
but , unfortunately , there have been abuses , a number of abuses . 
we have now seen in recent years the largest financial restatement in history , dwarfing the financial restatements that we saw at enron and worldcom . 
now , when we saw all of these accounting irregularities earlier on with the enrons and worldcoms of the world , congress was outraged . 
and congress rightly answered with critical legislation , sarbanes-oxley , to address these types of corporate abuses . 
but all of a sudden , there seems to have been a deafening silence when we see fannie and freddie engaged in activities that with respect to the financial restatements rival those that i have described . 
and so these people play an incredible role in our marketplace , but we have given them incredible powers as well , and there must be increased accountability . 
so i think that this legislation takes a very significant step forward in bringing about a significant regulator for these enterprises , because we know that we have been warned by the chairman of our federal reserve that particularly with respect to the portfolio holdings of their own mortgage-backed securities that this represents a systemic risk to our economy . 
this is not something that we can leave unregulated and unabated . 
and i think this legislation takes a very good step forward . 
i hope in conference with the other body that we can came up with something that will help address this . 
i am also concerned about their mission creep . 
again , when we see them engaging in activities like airplane leasing and activities related to loan originations , and the list goes on , if they are going to receive government-granted benefits , we need to ensure that they use their charter to provide this liquidity in the secondary-mortgage market . 
now we know that there is a debate over the affordable housing fund . 
again , i would ask my colleagues from the other side of the aisle , if we want to create more affordable housing , why do we not go directly to the people who need it ? 
why do we not simply increase that section 8 voucher ? 
are we trying to have affordable housing , or are we trying to have affordable lobbyists and lawyers ? 
i think we should have affordable housing and support the manager 's amendment . 
